When we think about online communities, we instinctively
(and reasonably) concentrate on consensus and mutual help. A
community must be useful to all its members and its right to
focus on shared opinions and behaviors, points of agreement
and cooperation. But that doesnt mean that everything must
always bee harmony and consent, that we should avoid
differences of opinion  and conflicts. Pointless arguments
and flames need to be put out as quickly as
possible. But there are differences of opinion, attitude or
culture that are relevant and should be seen as values rather
than problems.

Three are conflicts and disagreements in any environment.
If well understood, they can be more of a strength than a
hindrance. If a conflict is hidden or misunderstood, its
better to bring it out, to understand its reasons, to learn
from it. This is true in any community or human relationship.
In couples, in families, in working environments and
organizations. There are effective psychological therapies
that work by bringing out conflicts.

Its quite surprising that there is so little analysis on
this subject in the studies of management and organization.
Its important, I think, to understand that conflicts need to
be understood  and can be managed. This can be done in many
different ways; but I think that there are essentially four
ways of resolving conflicts.

Quench them or reduce their impact. That is,
discover the causes and remove them, or at least reduce the
discomfort.

Remove them. This can imply drastic solutions, such as
moving a person to different task or eliminating from the
organization people who cause problems and conflicts.

Resolve them. By changing the circumstances that create
conflict situations, improving the organization or the
environment, clarifying relationships, etc.

Manage them. To understand when and how conflicts can be
useful, can generate an improvement.

The general practice, when a conflict is identified, is
to go for one of the first three solutions. Often that is the
right way. But not always. There is energy in a conflict,
that (if it is allowed to build up in a container) can lead to an
explosion. But if understood and put to work it can become an
engine of development and innovation.

If this is true in any human environment, its even more
so in an online community. Listening is a difficult art. And
its even more difficult to understand those conflicts that
are not just personality clashes but fertile melting
pots of ideas and experiences. But it can be very
rewarding. Innovation and quality improvement often start off
looking like conflicts.

While the destiny of many dot coms looks
gloomy in the United States and elsewhere, there are obvious
perplexities also in Italy. The general hype continues, but
there are reports of dismay, even in mainstream media, that
are not based only on the ups-and-downs of the stock
exchange.

For instance there was an article on September 8, in a
major newsmagazine, that was not written by a journalist
looking in from the outside. It reflected directly the point
of view of a manager of one of the largest contenders in the
war of the portals.

Once upon a time there was the internet hurricane, that
quite rightly displeased all of the people who dont feel
comfortable with words and concepts flagged as authoritative
imperatives. Now the hurricane in blowing the other way:
newspapers are crammed with woe for the end of electronic
commerce, the disappointment of those who thought they could
get rich quickly and have soon met with the hard realities of
the economy ...

Im a fairly careful reader of newspapers and I havent
noticed any such hurricane of dismay. There is
still more hype than doubt. But this article and a few others
of the same kind (in addition to what is often whispered,
away from the limelight, in business circles) reveals what
the real feelings are inside large companies that have
invested heavily in the so-called new economy and
expected returns too soon and too easily.

Of course there is no hurricane. E-business isnt dying;
to a large extent it isnt born. But its more obvious every
day that there has been too much haste  and that exaggerated
expectations could only lead do disappointment.

Again recently, in several circumstances, I have met
owners and managers of companies, large and small, who are
either dismayed or confused. If they tried something online,
they are disappointed. If they didnt they have an
uncomfortable feeling that they should, but they dont know
how.

There are fewer declared bankruptcies (o extensive staff
cuts) in Europe than on the other side of the Atlantic; but
there are many failures. Ive seen well conceived projects
canceled overnight because top management felt uncomfortable
about supporting them. Some good ideas warped by clumsy
executions. And lots of very bad ideas put on the market with
great fanfare and causing nothing but confusion on the
marketplace.

Its often quite amazing to see the lack of quality, care
and substance in the way major projects are handled by
organizations supported by those who are supposed to be the
wisest and most competent venture capitalists.
Hollow.com is a definition that
applies here as much as it does in the United States 
probably more so.

The irony is that there is nothing really remote or alien
in e-business. Most basic good business principles apply 
and what is needed is an additional touch of good service and
customer care. But those things need attention, commitment and
patience. The current lore is that no such hard work is
needed to succeed online; all you do is go out with something
flashy and you get rich overnight. The fact is that you dont
 unless you are smart or lucky enough to unload the bundle
onto someone else who is then left with the problem of making
it really work (or maybe manages to sell it, merge
it or find new capital to move it a step ahead in the same
wrong direction). The real mystery is why its taking people
and companies (as well as media) so long to find out that
this merry-go-round cant last forever and that the resulting
mess is standing in the way of genuine, well-planned business
ventures.

A witchthunt has started again in Italy. The
perpetrators are a few magistrates (especially a megalomaniac
in Torre Annunziata near Naples), a priest in Sicily leading
a band of vigilantes... and Microsoft. Plus several politicians
exploiting the issue  and most of the mainstream media.

There had been previous waves of
anti-internet propaganda based on pedophilia.
This one started with two awful crimes (two young girls
assassinated) in late August. Those murders dont seem to be
sex-related but caused an emotional wave.

Its a known fact that 80 or 90 percent of violence
against children (or teenagers) occurs in families, and most
of the rest in neighborhood environments (including schools
and churches). In spite of that clear fact 99 percent of the
political debate and the (enormous) media coverage
concentrate on pedophile internet web sites. The
news is extremely confusing. Some reports
talk about thousands of people being involved in
the inquiry, but other say that eight, or maybe
sixteen, people have been arrested. No case is reported of
any of these people being involved in actual violence against children
or minors. On the other hand, hundreds of people
who are totally innocent or maybe guilty of looking at a
questionable website have been submitted to
extreme harassments (only a few of those many cases have been
reported by the press). One of the initiatives was setting up
a fake pornographic site (organized by Microsoft)
and encouraging people to visit it. As far as we know from
information publicly available, none of the people who fell
into the trap was identified as having any
pedophile inclinations.

Of course a traffic of disgusting materials, including
torture and killings, has existed for many years (long before
the internet) and apparently some of those materials are
being exchanged online. One of the inquiries claims to have
located a source of such trade in Russia (but so far nobody
in Russia has been charged for any such crime). One of the
inquiring magistrates claims that there are sources of
pedopornography in Europe, and specifically in
Italy, but there is no clear information about those sources
or what they are doing to identify people and organizations
abusing minors for the production of such materials.

The current witchhunt is being largely exploited by the
media for sensationalism, by several interests to
promote censorship on the net, and by police authorities to
increase their (already large) control powers.

There is a lot of material online on this subject, but
unfortunately its only in Italian. For anyone who
understands the language... see the freedom
and censorship section on this site.

Some background information in English on the situation in Italy can be found
in a report at the CFP2000 convention.